Falcon Trail

Distance: 11.5 miles
Ride Time: 2 hours 12 minutes
Elapsed Time: 4 hours 10 minutes (due to break downs and wrong turns)
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
Technical Difficulty: Difficult

TRAIL DESCRIPTION

Falcon Trail, located within the Air Force Academy, is a trail for the more advanced riders. In one word this trail is gruesome (if you ride the whole thing). The time we rode this trail, it was in pretty poor shape. A lot of brush and trees were laying in the trail due to the heavy snow late in the spring. I hope the Cadets will get a chance to clean-up the trail a bit.

If you do want to chance this trail, you will be rewarded with great views of the Air Force Academy and the foot hills. It is also a great work out. Generally, the trail is well marked with different colored (white, yellow, & red) Falcon signs. Not exactly sure what the different colors represent, but I think they mark normal, caution, and danger areas. This trail is mostly composed of very narrow single track (only about 12 inches wide). It's best to walk the first part of the trail when it descends rapidly down the hill towards Pine Drive. There is some new construction going on where the trail meets the road. Our best guess was to stay to the right of the construction and head straight back towards the trees. Once you pick the trail up again, it's pretty well marked from now on.

TRAIL DIRECTIONS:

• From I-25 (North Colorado Springs) take exit 150-B. (NOTE: now under construction)
• Take Academy Blvd north through the south entrance of the Air Force Academy.
• Turn left on Pine Drive (just past the first bridge over the rail road tracks).
• Continue on Pine Drive for about 2.6 miles then turn right on Community Center Drive.
• After about 0.7 miles, turn right at the Gas Station and park on the right side of the Chapel.
• Behind the playground equipment, you will find the trail marked with the Falcon sign.